Born in 1931

What things cost in 1931

1931 figures are annual averages of the published monthly (or quarterly) values. “Today’s dollars” uses the Consumer Price Index for September 2026; “latest” is the most recent published price. Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor, via FRED. Average retail prices are only published from 1976 on; 1931 has the CPI alone.

Who was in charge in 1931

United States

Herbert Hoover (President)

United Kingdom

George V (King); Ramsay MacDonald (Prime minister)

Soviet Union

Joseph Stalin (General Secretary); Mikhail Kalinin (Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Congress of Soviets); Vyacheslav Molotov (Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars)

Republic of China (1916–1949)

Chiang Kai-shek (Chairmen); Chiang Kai-shek, then Chen Mingshu (Premier)

French Third Republic

Gaston Doumergue, then Paul Doumer (President); Théodore Steeg, then Pierre Laval (President of the Council of ministers)

Weimar Republic of Germany

Paul von Hindenburg (President); Heinrich Brüning (Chancellor)

Empire of Japan

Hirohito (Emperor); Osachi Hamaguchi, then Wakatsuki Reijirō, then Inukai Tsuyoshi (Prime minister); Kijūrō Shidehara (Acting Prime minister)

From Wikipedia’s List of state leaders in the 20th century (1901–1950) (revision 1377869146), each name checked against Wikidata. Every country in 1931 →

Famous people born in 1931

• 1 January – Furio Colombo, politician and journalist (died 2025) source
• January 1 – Bobbie Nelson, pianist and singer (died 2022) source
• 8 February – Shadia, actress (died 2017) source
• March 11 – Rupert Murdoch, Australian-born publisher source
• March 22 – William Shatner, Canadian actor and science fiction novelist (Star Trek) source
• October 7 – Desmond Tutu, South African Anglican archbishop, activist and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 2021) source
• March 12 – Herb Kelleher, businessman (died 2019) source
• 29 December – Bobby Shearer, footballer (died 2006) source
• February 1 – Boris Yeltsin, 1st President of Russia (died 2007) source
• September 29 – James Watson Cronin, American nuclear physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1980 (died 2016) source
• February 8 – James Dean, American actor (died 1955) source
• March 24 – Connie Hines, American actress (died 2009) source
• January 6 – E. L. Doctorow, American author (died 2015) source
• May 6 – Willie Mays, African-American baseball player (died 2024) source
• March 9 – León Febres Cordero, President of Ecuador (died 2008) source

What happened in 1931

• January 22 – Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia. source
• 11 January – The government dissolves the far-right Iron Guard. source
• January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. source
• March 11 – The Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR programme, abbreviated as GTO, is introduced in the Soviet Union. source
• 7 January – Australian aviator Guy Menzies makes the first solo flight across the Tasman sea, starting from Sydney and ending 11 hours 45 minutes later with a crash landing in a swamp near Harihari on the West Coast source
• 29 January – for the fourth time in nine years, there is a fatal underground explosion at Haig Pit, Whitehaven, in the Cumberland Coalfield, killing 27 people. source
• 5 January – Third Jewish Assembly of Representatives election. source
• 4 March – Holden's Motor Body Builders is purchased by General Motors, and is renamed General Motors–Holden's Ltd. source